This report was made possible thanks to a team of more than 60 researchers, editors, and analysts from around the world.
The organizations
This report was created by SembraMedia thanks to support from Luminate, with additional support from CIMA.
About SembraMedia
SembraMedia’s mission is to empower diverse voices in media to publish news and information with independence, journalistic integrity and a positive impact on the communities they serve. We help digital media entrepreneurs build more sustainable, independent news organizations by offering business and technical training, market intelligence, networking opportunities, specialized consulting, and direct financial support. Our work is driven by an international team of journalists, entrepreneurs, consultants, and academics with deep knowledge of global political, economic, and media markets. We are guided and supported by a distinguished Advisory Board whose members contribute their expertise as journalists, media executives, professors, and consultants.
At SembraMedia, we are thankful for the many organizations that have supported our work, including the International Center for Journalists, the Institute for Nonprofit News, Luminate Group, Omidyar Network, Google News Initiative, The Lenfest Institute, The Cook Family Foundation, Facebook Journalism Project, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, and numerous individual donors, including Mark and Linda Jenkins, Patricia Torres-Burd, Ariadna Coto, David LaFontaine, and Janine Warner.
To learn more, visit sembramedia.org.
About Luminate
Luminate is a global philanthropic organisation focused on empowering people and institutions to work together to build just and fair societies. We support innovative and courageous organisations and entrepreneurs around the world, and we advocate for the policies and actions that will drive change across four impact areas: Civic Empowerment, Data & Digital Rights, Financial Transparency, and Independent Media. We work with our partners to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to participate in and to shape the issues affecting their societies, and to make those in positions of power more responsive and accountable. Luminate was established in 2018 by philanthropists Pierre and Pam Omidyar. The organisation was founded by The Omidyar Group.
About CIMA
The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) is a research and knowledge platform at the National Endowment for Democracy. CIMA produces knowledge, conducts research and builds networks that aim to strengthen the support, raise the visibility, and improve the effectiveness of media development in developing countries and emerging democracies.
Managerial team

Janine Warner, Project Director and Co-author
Janine Warner is the co-founder and Executive Director of SembraMedia. She also has a Knight Fellowship from the International Center for Journalists that supports her work with SembraMedia in Latin America. Over the last decade, Janine has worked with thousands of journalists and digital media entrepreneurs in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe.

Mijal Iastrebner, Project Director and Editor
Mijal Iastrebner is co-founder and Executive Director of SembraMedia. She is a journalist, entrepreneur, and professor, who specializes in entrepreneurial journalism, leadership, team management, and international research.

Jessica Best, Project Manager and Co-author
Jessica is a journalist, editor, researcher, and media strategist. She has previously worked at micropayments platform Blendle, member-supported journalism platform The Correspondent, and the Membership Puzzle Project. As a consultant and coach, she has worked with newsrooms to develop audience revenue and engagement initiatives.

Felicitas Carrique, Lead Analyst and Tech Production Director
Feli is SembraMedia’s Innovation Director, in charge of product design and systems development. She oversees all of their technical implementation, including managing all of SembraMedia’s websites. In 2020 she was selected as a Professional Fellow by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and developed Propulsorio’s Product guide for Latin American media organizations.

Eugenio is a Social and Business Analytics student at the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires who currently works as a Data Scientist at Mutt Data. His previous experience includes bootstrapping an NGO to help more than 400 business owners from Argentina digitize their businesses during COVID-19 times.

Delfina Arambillet is an innovation and data journalist at LA NACION Data. She has a degree in Journalistic Communication from the Universidad Católica Argentina and is a member of Global Shapers Buenos Aires, a global community of young people committed to improving the state of the world, organized by the World Economic Forum.

Rocío Caro, Tech Support

Alejo Trigo, Web Developer
Alejo is a developer, programmer, and IT consultant with over 15 years of experience. He works as a Project Manager in web design and programming developments created in WordPress. He is highly qualified in usability, user experience and user interface (UX/UI). He has worked on over 150 projects.

Andrés Snitcofsky, Interactive Design
Andrés Snitcofsky is a graphic designer dedicated to data visualization, interface design, animation, and different branches of design and visual communication. He leads the public office visualization project Cargografías and does visualizations and data journalism at Economia Feminista and Fundación Bunge y Born.

Fábrica Memética, Brand, Illustrations, and Visual Strategy
Fabrica Memética is the web design and branding agency from Memetic Media Paraguay, which was created by the media organization, El Surti. Memetic Media works with Latin American organizations to build a collaborative and participatory society, leveraging the power of memetic communication. Their team designed all of the graphics and illustrations in this report.
Regional experts, editors, and analysts
James Breiner was one of the editors of this report. He is a bilingual consultant (English-Spanish) specializing in digital journalism and newsroom leadership with three decades of experience on the editorial and business sides of newspapers. He is also a member of SembraMedia’s Executive Board.
David LaFontaine was one of the editors of this report. He a is journalist, entrepreneur, and creative data scientist. He also serves on the advisory board of SembraMedia.
Sameer Padania and runs Macroscope, which works with clients, partners and peers in the U.K., Europe and beyond to help transform and grow the public interest journalism and information ecosystem.
Anya Schiffrin is director of the Technology, Media, and Communications at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a lecturer who teaches on global media, innovation, and human rights.
Rosental Alves is a professor at University of Texas at Austin and founder and director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. He is also a member of SembraMedia’s Advisory Board
Alan Soon is Co-Founder & CEO at Splice Media and is based in Singapore.
Anika Anand is Deputy Director at LION: Local Independent Online News Publishers in the U.S..
Regional research coordinators



Latin American research team
Argentina


Brazil


Colombia


México


African research team
Kenya


Nigeria


South Africa


Ghana


South East Asian research team
Indonesia


Malaysia


Philippines


Thailand
